Leveraging synergy of SDWN and multi-layer resource management for 5G networks

Fifth-generation (5G) networks are envisioned to predispose flexible edge-to-core infrastructure to offer diverse applications. Convergence of software-defined networking, software-defined radio, and virtualisation on the concept of software-defined wireless networking (SDWN) is a promising approach to support such dynamic networks. The principal technique behind the 5G-SDWN framework is the separation of control and data planes that allows the abstraction of resources as transmission parameters of users. In such environment, resource management plays a critical role to achieve efficiency and reliability. The authors introduce a converged multi-layer resource management (CML-RM) framework for SDWN-enabled 5G networks that involve a functional model and an optimisation framework. In such framework, the key questions are if 5G-SDWN can be leveraged to enable CML-RM over the portfolio of resources, and reciprocally, if CML-RM can effectively provide performance enhancement and reliability for 5G-SDWN. The authors tackle these questions by proposing a flexible protocol structure for 5G-SDWN, which can handle all the required functionalities in a more cross-layer manner. They demonstrate how the proposed general framework of CML-RM can control the end-user quality of experience. Moreover, for two scenarios of 5G-SDWN, they investigate the effects of joint user-association and resource allocation via CML-RM to improve performance in virtualised networks.